Automatic sheet-music rack.



A. G. MORAND.

AUTOMATIC SHEET MUSIC BACK. APPLICATION FILED APILZQ, 1908 973,803. Patented 001;. 25, 1910.

6 SHEETSSHEET 1.

' attozwufi 1n: NORRIS PETERS 1:41,, WASHINGTON, n c.

A. U. MORAND. AUTOMATIC SHEET MUSIC RACK. nrmoumn FILED APR. 2'9, 190s.

n1: NORRIS PETERS cm, WASHINGTON, n. cy

APPLIOATION TILED APILZQ, 190B.

Patented 0013.25, 1910.

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THE NORRIS Psr sRs co., wAsmNoroN, n, c.

A. U. MORAND. AUTOMATIC SHEET MUSIG RACK.

APPLICATION FILED APIBHZQ, 1908. Patented Oct. 25

6 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

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A. O. MORAND.

AUTOMATIC SHEET MUSIG RACK APPLIOATIQN FILED APB.29, 1908.

, Pat ented 001;. 25, 1910.

-6 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

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A. G. MORAND. AUTOMATIC SHEET MUSIGRAGK.

APPLIOATION FILED APR. 29, 1908. I

Patented Oct. 25, 1910.

e SHEETS-SHEET 6.

Witnesses rm: mmms ps-rzns cm, WASHINFTON n c ARMANI) C. IVIORAND, F BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

AUTOMATIC SHEET-MUSIC RACK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 25, 1910.

Application filed April 29, 1908. Serial No. 429,997.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARMAND C. Monano, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Sheet-Music Racks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to music racks and more particularly to that class which includes means whereby the leaves of apiece of music supported thereon may be turned in a manner other than by hand.

In carrying out my invention I provide instrumentalities which act initially to bulge the leaf to be turned, secondly, to turn the leaf, and thirdly to hold the leaf after it has been turned, it being understood, of course, that these instrumentalities cooperate in the performance of their functions and are operable from a single element which is in the nature of a pedal.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a front elevation of the music stand em bodied in my invention, Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof, Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the desk of the stand, the standard being broken away and the parts being shown in their normal position, Fig. 4. is a similar view showing the positions assumed by the parts upon initial movement of the pedal, in full lines, and their final position in dotted lines, Fig. 5 is a front elevation of the desk showing the parts in full lines in normal position and in dotted lines the positions assumed upon initial movement of the pedal, Fig. 6 is an upper edge view of the desk,

Fig. 7 is a similar view showing the parts in full lines in the positions assumed upon initial movement of the pedal and in dotted lines in their final position, Fig. 8 is a vertical sectional view through the stand taken in a vertical plane with the standard and through the same, Fig. 9 is a transverse sectional View through the music desk taken in a line adjacent the upper edge thereof, Fig. 10 is a horizontal sectional view looking upwardly beneath the sheet or page bulging device, Fig. 11 is a front elevation of a piano showing the manner in which my music leaf N turning mechanism may be applied to any ordinary instrument of this class, and, Fig. 12 is avertical sectional view through a piano taken in a plane from front to rear and showing the manner in which the mechanism may be embodied in the instrument itself.

As shown in the drawings,-the stand embodied in my invention comprises two principal elements, namely a standard A and a desk B, there being legs 15 connected at the lower end of the standard A for supporting the rack as an entirety. Secured to the rear face of the desk B is a cleat 16 and the standard A is hollow throughout its length and has its upper end turned obliquely forwardly and in an upward direction and fitted into a threaded socket 17, the desk being in this manner supported in an inclined plane.

A cleat 18 is secured upon the rear face of the desk B adjacent the lower edge thereof and extends across the desk and a similar cleat 19 is fixed upon the said face of the desk adjacent the upper edge thereof. An arm 20 is pivoted to the cleat 18 to the right hand side of the cleat 16 and is formed adjacent its upper end with a slot 21 in which works a pin 22 upon a rod 23 which is slidably mounted in suitable bearings 2st upon the said rear face of the desk. A rocker 25 is pivoted at its middle to a bracket :26 which is secured upon the rear face of the desk B and is pivoted at its rear end to the right hand end of the rod 23 and at its other end to the corresponding end of a shiftable feeder which is in the form of a block 27 formed with a longitudinally OX- tending slot 28 in which is engaged a pin 29 upon the bracket 26, the pin serving to guide and limit the movement of the feeder and being aided in the attainment of this result by the engagement with the front edge of the feeder of a stud 30 also fixed upon the bracket. The pin 29 thus constitutes a stop. A block 31 of rubber or other suitable ma terial is carried by the feeder at its inner end and the function of this block is to fric tionally engage a leaf of sheet music and when moved, to bulge the leaf so that it may be engaged and turned by another device to be presently described.

The means for moving the. feeder will now be described.

The cleat 16 is in the form of a guide and slidable thereon is a block 32 to which is pivoted the inner end of a link 33 the outer end of the link being pivoted to the arm 20 adjacent the middle thereof. To this block .32 is connected the upper end of a small red or wire 34 which is extended through an opening 35 formed in the standard A at the bend adjacent the upper end thereof, downwardly through the standard, and connected at its lower end to a spring 36. This spring is in turn connected to a pedal 37 which is pivoted to the rear one of the legs and extends forwardly to the proper distance for foot depression. Normally, the link 33 extends obliquely upwardly, its inner end being higher than its outer end and it will be understood from the foregoing that by depressing the pedal 37 the block 32 will be slid downwardly tending to bring the link to horizontal position or in other words in parallel relation with respect to the cleat 18. This change in position of the link 33 will result in the rod 23 being shifted outwardly, the rocker 25 being rocked to shift the feeder 27 inwardly and as the feeder rests with its rubber block 31 frictionally in contact with the leaf to be turned, the leaf will be bulged.

A small bracket 38 is formed at the upper edge of the desk B at the middle thereof and swiveled to this bracket is a stud 35) to which is secured the inner end of an arm l0 which, of course, is designed to turn with the stud. This arm 1'0 has pivoted to its outer end a finger t1 the point of pivotal connection of the finger with the arm being bad adjacent the upper end of the finger. A guide is carried by the arm 40 and is formed of a rod engaged through the arm it) for rocking movement and bent to one side of the arm into substantially annular form as indicated at l2 and to the other side of the said arm in an upward direction as at 4:3, there being a link ll pivotally connected at its ends to the upper end of the said portion l3 and the extreme upper end of the finger. The annularly bent portion 42 of the rod is passed through an eye -5 formed at the upper end of a small rod at; which is secured at its lower end to the slide block The annularly bent portion 42 of the guide rod above described substantially encircles the swiveled stud and the extreme end of this portion is formed with a head 47 which prevents disengagement of the guide from the eye 45. Normally, the finger 41 is raised or in other words pointed inwardly as is clearly illustrated in the first views illustrating the front and rear face views of the desk, the rod 46 being at such time raised as is also the block Upon depression of the pedal 37, however, the block 32 will be pulled downwardly as will also the rod 46 andthis movement of the rod will result in the guide being rocked with respect to the arm 40 by which it is supported and a pull exerted upon the link ate: which pull serves to swing the finger downwardly bet-ween the bulged leaf and the one to follow it.

The mechanism for turning the music leaves will now be described.

Pivoted at its lower end to the cleat 16 is an arm l8 and pivoted to the upper end of this arm is a rod 4E9. The swiveled stud heretofore mentioned is formed with a laterally projecting crank pin 50 and to this pin is pivoted the other end of the rod d9 the rod being bent adjacent this connection as at 51 so as to receive the stud at times. A rod 52 is pivotally connected to the arm 48 adjacent its lower or pivoted end and works through an eye 53 upon the rear face of the desk, there being connected to the lower end of this rod the upper end of a wire or small rod 5t which at its lower end is extended through an opening formed in the pedal 37, the extreme lower end of the rod or wire being formed with a head or button 56 with which the pedal engages after it has been depressed sufficiently to produce the results heretofore stated. As will be seen from the drawings, depression of the pedal into engagement with the head or button will serve to rock the arm 48 toward the right hand side of the desk and will pull upon the rod 49, the result being the rotation of the said stud to the extent of practically 180 degrees. The arm 48 works in a suitable guide 57 which is attached to the cleat 15).

In connection with the above described mechanism I have provided means for automatically engaging the sheet after it has been turned so as to prevent its being blown back to its original position and this means will now be described in connection with the drawings.

A leaf engaging finger 58 is pivoted upon the front face of the desk to the left hand side thereof and is held with its inner end normally in engagei'nent with the desk by means of a suitable coil spring 59. A wire 60 is connected to the outer end of the finger 58 and at its other end this wire is connected to the arm l? sothat when the arm is rocked to rotate the stud carrying the arm 40, the finger will be rocked so as to move its inner end out of contact with the front face of the desk thus allowing the sheet of music to engage therebetween and the said desk, the finger being subsequently returned to normal position through the instrumentality of the spring which is connected to it. In order to return the arm to to normal position, a spring 61 is connected to the stud 39 and to the bracket 38 and in order to return the arm 20 to normal position and consequently the feeder heretofore described, a spring 62 is connected to this arm 20 and to the rear face of the desk.

As it is frequently the case that a piece of music has a loose single sheet, I have pro vided in connection with my rack means for holding such a sheet for turning movement but for preventing slipping thereof and this means is embodied in a rod 63 which is formed at its upper end with a head and is engaged at its upper and lower ends through suitable bearings 64 whereby it may have a rotary movement and this rod is split from its lower end to a point adjacent its upper end so that the inner edge of the single loose sheet may be inserted therein. The lower end of the rod 63 is slightly tapered and screw threaded and has engaged upon it a milled sleeve nut which, after the edge of the sheet of music has been inserted in the slot, may be turned to clamp the said edge of the sheet between the halved portions of the rod.

In Fig. 11 of the drawings, I have illustrated my device as adapted for application to a piano of any ordinary construction. In adapting the mechanism to such an instrument, I omit the standard and substitute for it a hollow tube 70 which is bent to extend along the lower edge of the music desk of the instrument to one end of the key-board and thence down and beneath the key-board to a plate 71 which is formed integral with the tube and which is secured to the lower front board of the instrument to one side of the usual pedals. This plate 71 has pivoted to it a pedal 72 and the flexible connections which, in the preferred form, are extended through the upright A are passed down wardly through the tube and connect to the pedal 72 in the same manner as they do to the pedal 37 in the first described form, it being understood that the operation is the same in every respect and that the tube T0 is identical with the upright A except that it has a different shape.

In Fig. 12 of the drawings, I have illustrated the device as embodied directly in an instrument of this class and in this form there is substituted for the upright A a tube 7 3 Which extends vertically behind the lower upright board of the piano and is constructed at its lower end and provided with an operating pedal as in the case of the tube 70, the pedal being extended through an opening in the lower edge of the said board and the tube being secured at its lower end, by

means of an attaching plate Tel, to the rear face of the board, this plate being identical with the plate 71.

What is claimed, is

1. In a leaf turning device, a support, mechanism for bulging the sheet to be turned, a leaf turning finger, other mechanisms for placing said finger behind the leaf, a pedal, and a resilient connection between said pedal and the bulging and finger placing mechanism and means connected to the turning finger adapted to be engaged by said pedal after the movement of the bulging mechanism.

2. In a leaf turning device, a support, mechanism for bulging the sheet to be turned, a leaf turning finger, other mechanisms for placing said finger behind the leaf, mechanism for turning said finger, a pedal, a resilient connection between the bulging and finger placing mechanisms and said pedal, said pedal having an opening therein, a bar passing through said opening and operatively connected to the leaf turning mechanism, and a head on said bar engaging said pedal when the latter has completed a portion of its movement.

3. In a leaf turning device, a support, mechanism for bulging the sheet to be turned, a pedal, a stop for the bulging mechanism, a resilient. connection between the bulging mechanism and said pedal whereby the pedal may continue to move after the bulging mechanism reaches the stop, a leaf turning finger, a bar operatively connected to said leaf turning finger and extending through said pedal, a head on said bar adapted to be engaged by the pedal after said pedal has moved the bulging mechanism against its stop, and mechanism for placing the finger behind the sheet to be turned, said mechanism being operatively connected to the bulging mechanism.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signa ture, in presence of two witnesses.

ARMANI) C. MORAND. lVitnesses WV. M. BROWN, M. ALLEN. 

